Rebuilding my mother's home after house flood in Los Angeles

[Chace Marigny]

Forwarded message:

Hello Joshua,

My name is Chace Marigny and I was hoping you can help point me in the right direction(s) as to eliminate any errors as I go about helping turn my mother's recently flooded inner city Los Angeles home into a multifamily residential rental. I will be doing the footwork this week to find out what zoining regulations exists, construction limitations exist, permits needed, and most importantly what funding is available.  Since her home was flooded due to an interal plumbing issue and the insurance company is paying to remodel the existing old (1920s) and dilapidated structure (could tell by looking at some of the 2x4 studs revealed in the partial internal demolition), I decided to find out if my mother can use the money should would receive from the insurance company in the form of a check, put that towards the remodel, and in addition secure a construction-to-permanent loan in order to fund the complete transformation of her 1 bed 1 bath 1,200 sqft home into a 2-story duplex that she can rent out, airbnb, etc. I am a 2nd-year plumber apprentice in Los Angeles, CA.  I work full-time but am available and willing to do as much of the labor as I can after work and on Saturdays to cut back on labor costs.

Looking to you and the Bigger Pockets community to help guide me along the way.

Please let me know what you think and what excatly can be done and what my next steps should be. I very much so value your expertise and advice.

Sincerely,

Chace Marigny

[Michele B.]

First you need to find out the zoning, secondly you need to figure out if the house has to be fixed up to what it was for the insurance company.  The next thing you need to do is get blue prints made to what you want to do, get estimates.  Most new construction loans I have seen require a General Contractor to do all the work.  This can have a loop hole if you talk a general contractor into letting you be the sub contractor and not taking pay ( you might have to grease the wheels for the General Contractor to let you do this).